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Thanks, I have to agree I wouldn't be seen dead driving it as it couldn't be further from my taste but I can see why she wanted it done like it hence why she loves it and all her girly friends think it's great.

Well it was never going to be any other colour because my wife loves things girly and you don't get much girly than a glittery pink beetle on daisy wheels, its not to my taste but who's to argue with the boss aka the wife its her car she drives it and if she wants it and I can give it to her she'll get it. Also she's got no excuses then when I say "I'm just getting _ _ _ _ _ _ for my car"

Hmmmm I feel I probably would

I've already had requests, but sod that way to much faffing

A little harsh do you not think.

Funny enough she had the lashes fitted before I sprayed it and I didn't refit them because they used to scratch the bonnet where they flexed at speed and rubbed lines into the bonnet so after all that graft I defiantly wasn't fitting them again.

Couldn't agree more its a nasty thing to drive but she loves it, I've shot my self in the foot a bit because now she loves it she'll never get rid.

NEVER..... EVER drive it not even before I painted it

In no way Z related but thought I'd show off my work on my wife's car A few weeks ago I decided to re spray my wife's car for her as she's had it a long time and loves it and as she puts up with me spending all my time on my motors and thought I'd spruce her's up a bit, She wanted it to look a bit special and stand out. I've never re-sprayed a whole car before only bits and pieces for my self in the booth at work so thought what the hell I'll give it a go. I started with a base metallic Pink then came the fun part I bought some Chameleon holographic Pink metal flake from Ibbotson flake, I had a quick chat with Neil the chap who owns Ibbotson and he was very informative and shared a few tricks to help me with the paint job. I bought 300g of flake which according to Neil was way more than I need (and he was right). With the metal flake you mix it in with the lacquer and according to the instructions you mix 20g with 1ltr of mixed lacquer I went against the instructions a bit and mixed 20g flake with 600ml of lacquer, Neil had said an experienced sprayer could double the flake to lacquer mix I wouldn't call my self an experienced spray at all but I like to push my luck, 600ml mix is enough to go round the car once with a full coat and I did this 8 times with flake mixed lacquer to get the desired coverage I then applied 6 coats of plain lacquer to bury the metal flake this was the first stage, I then left it to bake in the oven and returned the following morning to wet flat it down but as I started i was starting to hit the flake which you don't want to do as it takes the colour out of them so I gave it another 6 coats of lacquer and again baked it and left it again till the following day I then was able to wet flat the whole car to flatten the paint before giving it it's final coats of lacquer 4 more that's 24 coats of lacquer in total 8 with flake and 16 coats to bury the metal flake and leave a glass like finish and you can now not feel the flake at all, in total i used 15ltrs of lacquer that's 10 times the amount used on a normal spray job. After I finished the paint job I had to leave it a week or so for the solvents to evaporate fully from the paint due to there being so much paint and I then gave it a light 2000 grit wet flatting and machine polish and I was told In a few weeks or so I would need to machine polish it again which is what I did today so It's finally finished. Not bad really considering it's my first attempt and it's got a glass smooth finish, I was told by a sprayer work colleague the retail on a job like I've done is £4000 that's 2.5x the value of her car, it actually only cost me the materials £80 pink £155 lacquer and £20 flake £255 all in not bad going I'd say. Also bought her a new set of wheels to finish off the girly look Here is the finished article, It was hard getting the phone camera to pick up the flake as well as it can be seen in the flesh but they still look good, I also made a video which shows it off better. Here's a close up where you can see how the flake is suspended in the super thick coat of lacquer: a few stood back shots: Here's the video: There's no denying it stands out and is a bit special, it's crazy the amount attention it gets with people always taking pictures even driving down the motorway people pass with there phones up at the windows snapping away.

Wife would have had my nuts on a slab, but would love to........

Before 7 weeks later (after): Before: 7 weeks later (after):

Wasn't needed I could have done it on the lathe which we have at work but the issue was down to the brush being stuck in the slide and not touching the motor at all,

As the title, A little embarrassing really after saying how reliable my Z is that said it appears the rad fans seem to be a problem for lots of Z's I was waiting outside Tesco for my wife this morning with the AC on and thought it didn't feel as cold as normal but thought it was down to the outside temp then when she got back we drove off and got on the move and it got colder, so once home I popped the bonnet switched the ac on and only one fan was running and I knew they where both running a few weeks ago when I looked over it when buying it so with me being me I wouldn't be able to rest till I found and preferably fixed the issue I shot off to work , So got to work and drove it on the ramp and hooked up the diagnostics and sure enough I could power one fan up but not the other so checked the simple stuff before ripping the fan shroud out the car and whipped off the motor once on the bench I tried powering it up and could feel it was trying, it span free so wasn't seized so decided I wouldn't lose anything from opening it up and taking a look but before doing so I checked up how much they are to replace and what I found spurred me on even more to get to the bottom of the failure. So after removing the motor from the shroud and with it on the bench I first bent the lock tabs out with a screwdriver: Then lift off the front don't worry when you hear lots of springs and things fly about, once apart the first thing I looked at was the part of the motor the brushes sit against and cleaned this area up, I was surprised to find it wasn't very worn: dirty: cleaned up with a bit of emery paper: Now for the brushes this is where I found the fault, as you can see in the picture 3 of the 4 brushes have come shooting out when I lifted it apart and one is stuck in the housing: first I cleaned up the brushes that were out with a bit of emery to clean the contacts, carefully as there soft till the looked like this: I then secured the 3 working ones in place with there springs behind them and held them in place with a small bit of wire (a paper clip will work) I used welding wire and if you look carefully you'll see it: I then removed and cleaned the build up of carbon/crap from around the one that was stuck and made sure it slid freely in and out with the spring behind it which it did: then with that one secured in place with wire too I dropped the motor down in place and removed the wire so the brushes sat against the motor: before finally dropping the top back over it and using a hammer and punch carefully folding the lock tabs back over: I then refitted it back into the shroud and dropped it down into place so I could hook the wire back up and test it by powering it with the diagnostics and here is where another problem arose....... the one I fixed worked perfect but now the other side didn't run as quick It wasn't noticeable before because they were both obviously getting slow, so out it came again and I found the same problem in this one where one of the brushes was stuck, it was obviously touching enough to make it work but only just hence the slow speed. So with that one rebuilt too and plugged back in sure enough they worked perfect at the same full speed. Happy days an genuine fan motor off eBay is nearly £400 this cost me nothing cant get better than that. So I'd suggest firing up your ac popping your bonnet and make sure both your fans are running and at the same speed if there not could be worth having ago, To do the job it took me 1.5hrs including removal and refit of the shroud (just remove the air box and top rad hose and 2 10mm bolts and the shroud wriggles out) and the only tools need are a ratchet, 10mm socket, 8mm socket big flat blade screw driver, hammer and small punch, you will also want some antifreeze unless you catch it as around 1/2 a ltr comes out when removing the top hose.

Thanks but he will wait he's had a few cars off me 7 i think 3 of which he still has and is always flush so when the time comes I have no doubt I'll get 7k from him I thought you weren't selling it? Im not this was simply a post to prove cheap high miles cars are in some cases good deals and you wont lose money on in fact stand to make money But it not for sale to my friends disgust

I'll be enjoying my Z for a while yet